The Public and Commercial Services union is to mount a legal challenge over changes to the civil service redundancy compensation scheme this week after its members voted overwhelmingly to reject them.
The union will take the matter to the High Court and has already called on the coalition government to reopen negotiations in a bid to agree a new scheme. It is also calling for a judicial review of the situation.
Of the more than 80,000 civil servants who participated in the consultative ballot, 90% agreed with the union’s recommendation that plans to cap voluntary redundancy payments at 21 months’ pay and compulsory redundancy payments at 12 months should be thrown out.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Our members have sent a crystal clear message that they will not tolerate their contracts being ripped up, simply to allow the government to slash jobs and public services.”
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude described the ballot result as “disappointing”. He told the BBC: “Let’s not forget the recent changes to the Civil Service Compensation scheme were developed in constructive negotiations with some of the Britain’s most powerful trade unions.”
He referred to public statements by the general secretary of [union] Prospect that ‘negotiators on both sides showed flexibility and determination in getting the deal done’ and said that the deal was “fair for civil servants and other taxpayers”.
But the PCS had already successfully overturned the previous government’s proposed cuts to the compensation scheme after the High Court ruled that it was unlawful to reduce rights that had accrued through length of service without the union’s agreement.
A new version of the scheme removed the need for Ministers to agree either this or any future cuts with staff, however, which the PCS believes breaches the European Convention on Human Rights and is an abuse of the government’s unique power as both an employer and a legislator.
In November, Parliament’s human rights joint committee said that the coalition government had failed to make the necessary case for its proposed changes.
While most other civil service unions have acceded to the government’s proposed changes, although the Prison Officers Association has yet to decide, the PCS has the largest number of members in Whitehall. The coalition government argues that changes to redundancy payment terms are essential to cut costs.
